Find the Right Rock Guitar for you

First of all you probably will want to buy an electric guitar. This will give you more versatility in getting rock sounds than an acoustic guitar. Buy a guitar for around a $300 to $600. Try and get the best one you can. Any cheaper and you will not get a reasonable quality guitar that will last or stay in tune for you. You do not require one more expensive until you get more experience or skilled so no need to splash out $1000 yet. Also a lot of guitarists never go outside this price range even when they do improve as you can get a pretty good guitar for $600.

Get a guitar with at least two pickups, one at the bridge and one at the neck. Three pickups is (one extra at the middle) is nice to have but you may not actually use it. A guitar with one pickup will severely limit your sound range.

A guitar with humbucker pickups is also better to get. Humbuckers give a richer stronger rock sound. A humbucker looks like a double pickup. If you get a guitar with a single coil pickup don’t worry, with amp settings and effect pedals this can be beefed up anyway. See the picture of the Les Paul guitar (Gibson or Epiphone) with humbucker pickups at the bridge and neck below.

Rock Guitar with Humbucker Pickups

You do not need one with a Tremelo unit (or whammy bar). It is better to get a fixed bridge guitar or get the tremelo unit fixed tight at this stage. You will need to get a good amount of skill before you use the tremelo unit in your playing. But if you are getting a tremelo, try and and a Floyd Rose unit.

Shop around on the net for your guitar for the best price. Also remember to visit your local guitar shop. Especially if you have cash to buy a guitar, you can get a very good discount from them. If it was cheaper on the net, tell them that. Haggle as hard as you can over the price or get as many freebie accessories thrown in as you can. Also you get to try out the guitar in the shop which is an advantage over shopping on the net.